Apparatus for compressing precipitates in settling vessels.



F. TIEIEIANN. APPARATUS FOR GOMPRESSING PREGIPITATES IN SETTLINGVESSELS. APPLICATION TILED 110 7123, 1911.

{Ah/EIJTU warren snares a it FRITZ TIEMANNJOF BERLIN,

APPARATUS FOR CQMPRESSING PRECIPITATES IN SETTBLEEI'G Originalapplication filed June 9, 1911, Serial No. 601,683. Divided and thisapplication Ir? Specification of Letters Patent.

1911. Serial No. 661,9$7.

To all whom it may concern. I

Be it known that I, Fnrrz TIEMANN, director, a subject of the GermanEmperor, residing at Berlin lrV., 259, Kurfiirstendamm, Germany, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus forCompressing Precipitates in Settlin Vessels; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to bee full, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same.

This invention relates to improved apparatus for compressingprecipitates in settling vessels.

The apparatus is adapted to carry out the process set forth in myPatent, No. 1,007,823, dated Nov. 7, 1911, of which this application isa division. 7

The novel features of the invention will appear clearly from thefollowing description and claims. v

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical central section ofan apparatus embodying the invention, and Fig. 2 is a similar view of amodified apparatus.

Referring particularly to Fig. 1, the same shows a settling vessel orreceptacle into which the juice or liquid to be purified is introducedat the top, as by means of an inlet pipe E. The bottom of the vessel orreceptacle is closed under normal conditions. Arranged interiorly of thevessel and disposed in a substantially vertical row, one above theother, are separating bells each having associated therewith an outletfor the purified juice, the outletspassing through the side Wall of thevessel at points corresponding to the location of the bells. In theembodiment under consideration there are four main separating bells T,,,T,, T T the corresponding juice outlets of which are indicated at A A,,These outlets are equipped with suitable closing devices by meansofevhich the speed of thejuice rising in the corresponding bells andpassing out of the vessel under the pressure of the liquid in thelatter, can be regulated mitted to rise in bells vided withcorresponding outlets specti ely, similar to those u.l tioned and iirewise equipp d i for regulating the of liquid disc from the vessel atthose points.

The operation of an apparatus oi character is substantially as follows;The juice out-letsfi A A so by their closing deyics that the 0.2 mm. persecor Under nese conditions the regulating device in connection with thebell T should be adjusted to permit the juice to rise in'the hell notfaster than say 0.15 mm, per second and the low-est would be socontrolled to permit the un- Ward movement ot-the juice only mately 0.05mm. per second. The ve filled with liquid up to the inlet it; 1 juicepasses-With a certain spc d in a dew ward direction and first reachesthe separating bell T The precipitates then downward around said bellWhile the juice, by reason of its lower specific l I rises in a countercurrent in the b the speed previously indicated an charged through theoutlet l t understood, of course, that the solids c. cipitates in thejuice passing around bell T are subjected to a liquid pr correspondingto the distance from E to edge of the bell, While the passi of? of purejuice under the bell pros. relatively slight counter-pressure, whichcorresponds to the distance from the edge of the bell to the level ofthe outlet in. it will be obvious how these pr: e aiit ences produce thet "n suci' J o" moon or the juice out of the nests or tut cipitates, andthe discharge or pi from the bell and from the apparatus. a portion ofthe juice is now mixture of less juice and proper-ironately moreprecipitate passes from the bell the bell T with less speed, where cgportion of the remaining juice i1 condv off in a counter current at aspeed of approximately 0.2 mm. per second. The dis charge speed of thejuice in con'ipai'iwn to the speed of the juice pas lug downward istherefore appreciably '.-;1t1 than hetero,

need by th e that in the bell T owing to the provision or lumps.

of the bells located beneath the latter, the counter-pressure of liquidat each stage of the operation corresponding only to the coinparativelyshort distance between the edge of the corresponding bell and the outletassoc'iated with the latter. Accordingly the proportion of slimes orprecipitates in the" juice increases step by step as-the'mixture" passesfrom bell to bell, the downward speed of thejuice continually decreasingand the discharge speed of the pure juice continually increasing withrespect to such first named speed. A continually increasing compressionof the material separated out is thereby effected, with a correspondingstep by stepextraction of the juice from the nests The comparativelyslow discharge speeds used in connection with the lowermost separatingbells are necessary'because the masses of slimes are highly compressedin the lower part of the vessel and therefore contain comparativelylittle juice.

In view of the necessary small speed of the I upward travel of juice, onaccount of the bulky specifically light precipitates, these settlingvessels have to be of large diameter. It has been further found that therising juice entering the uppermost main separating bell, or theprecipitates of the said juice falling down, must have been already eX-posed to high liquid pressure in order to compress under strong pressurethe precipitates partly consisting of vegetable fibers or cells, so thatthey should become of suf- -ficiently great specific gravity forsinking.

These apparatus would have therefore to be I i worked with such a largequantity of'useful 50 liquid that the vegetable juice, apart from otherdamage, would be liable to decomposition.

The apparatus shown in Fig. 2 has been designed with a view to obtainthe neces sary high pressure for compressing the precipitates, whileavoiding the above drawback. I

The pressure required'for the uppermost main separating bell T forinstance one atmosphere, is obtained here by means of stand pipes Sbetween the upper and the bottom portions of the apparatus, so that thepressure of the about 10 meters of liquid at T requires onlyaconsumption of 12 cubic meters useful liquid, while an apparatus suchas that shown in Fig.1, with the same diameter of, say, four meters andalso with a pressure of one atmosphere at T would require 125 cubicmeters of liquid.

In the apparatus shown in Fig. 2, juice is admitted at E. A,, A A areused for the discharge of pure juice from the main separating bell T andthe stage bells T T with a speed reduced in stages to the desireddegree. L is used for discharging the air,

and D for removing the scum rising upward.

The removal of the precipitates is eflected in both apparatus at thebottom through N as soon as the precipitates are sufficiently compressedby the exhausting of the nests of juice.

What I claim is 1. In apparatus for compressing precipitates in settlingvessels, the combination of a settling vessel, means associatedtherewith for establishing a downward current of liquid therein, meansfor inducing a plurality of rising counter-currents in said downwardcurrent and for carrying 0E such counter-currents from the vessels, andmeans for producing an increasing pressure difference between thedownward current and the several counter-currents.

2. In apparatus for compressing precipitates in settling vessels, thecombination of a settling vessel, means associated therewith toestablish a main downward current of liquid in said vessel, means toinduce rising counter-currents of liquid in said main current and toconduct such count-ercurrents ofi": to the exterior of the vessel, andmeans for regulating the speed of the re spective dischargingcounter-currents.

' 3. In apparatus such as described, the

combination of a settling vessel, separating bells arranged'therein atdilIerent heights and having discharge outlets leading off from insidethe vessel, and closing devices associated with said outlets to regulatethe speed of the outflowing liquid.

4. In apparatus such as described, the combination with a settlingvessel, of a plurality of separating bells one above the other, and anindividual discharge from each bell leading ofi' from the vessel where.by the discharging streams are kept separate.

5. In apparatus such as described, the combination with a settlingvessel having an inlet at the top and an outletat the bottom, of avertically arranged series of separating bells in said vessel, thelowermost bell being arranged closely adjacent the bottom of the vessel,discharge devices to conduct the liquid. in the respective bells out ofthe vessel, and means to regulate the speed of the dischargingstreams ofliquid.

6. 1n apparatus such as described, the

at Effrant wei 'h'ts and having means to In testimony whereof I affixmysignature,

ciischmpe iiqmu Ex-0m the vesseL anfl stand in presence of twoWitnesses.

FRITZ TIEMANN.

as communication with the several L W12; 20 !.'y pressure dif nee of IWfln esses: 1 A a n sud WOLDEMAR EiAUPT;

HENRY HASPER.

